


nothing but this little spark

by klainelynch



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Developing Relationship, Episode: s03e06 The Avatar and the Fire Lord, F/M, POV Ta Min, Pre-Relationship, Roku is an awkward little turtleduck bless his heart, Ta Min SEEMS more put together but in reality she’s just as bad, Western Air Temple, they’re lucky she has a pushy best friend who insists on making fate work for their advantage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27579589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klainelynch/pseuds/klainelynch
Summary: "C'mon, Ta Min," Rina said. "It won't take us an hour by ferry to reach the Western Air Temple, and they have a bakery on the island, so it will be a perfect excuse toaccidentallyrun into Roku just like you both want."
Relationships: Roku/Ta Min (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	nothing but this little spark

**Author's Note:**

> This started as an update to [where I can’t follow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25718494/chapters/62448070), but by the time I hit 2000 words or so, I realized that this probably needed to be its own story. I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to actually update that fic this month now that I have an actual idea of who Roku & Ta Min are. Plus, I’ll get to count it towards my NaNoWriMo numbers :D Until then, enjoy this one shot!

"You know, Roku's airbending training brought him to the Western Air Temple last month. Apparently, Sister Wangchuk is the perfect person to help him master his final forms."

Ta Min's head snapped up. Her best friend, Rina, was a notorious gossip, but she was rarely wrong. If she said that Roku was within 100 miles of her for the first time in nearly four years, then it had to be true.

"Oh?" she asked, attempting to put on a casual air. Rina’s smirk told her how unsuccessful she was.

"Don’t ‘oh’ me, Ta Min! Everyone knows he had a crush on you before the Fire Sages told him he was the Avatar, and you're the one who follows news about his progress like an eagle hawk! You like him too, just admit it."

It was impossible to hold Rina's gaze, so she settled for opening her book again. She really needed to get back to her studies, and this conversation was nothing but a pointless distraction. Turning to the chapter about the allium family, she said, "Even if he felt that way back then, things have changed. He's the Avatar now, and he's probably met so many other— hey!" she exclaimed as Rina grabbed her book.

"No way, we're not going through this again! Remember his and Prince Sozin's fifteenth birthday?"

She did, and thought about it more than she cared to admit. Prince Sozin danced the entire night of course, and though he was a perfect gentleman each time he danced with the next girl, Ta Min could tell it was only out of a sense of obligation. Came with the territory of being the Crown Prince. When Ta Min's turn arrived, she tried to make him laugh, just to get his mind off the work of it all, and received a few polite smiles in return. She wasn't offended. They were passing acquaintances since her father’s wealth often brought him into contact with the Fire Lord, but they weren't friends.

Even though it was his birthday too, Roku didn't have the same duties as his best friend. Like every other boy at the party, he was free to dance with as many or as few girls as he wished. He hadn’t left the wall once. Ta Min knew that if there was one girl who was trying to work up the courage to ask him to dance, there were another ten behind her. He'd shot up six inches in as many months, and his face had lost the childhood roundness that still clung to so many boys his age. She knew him about as well as Sozin, but she thought it a shame that a handsome boy was oblivious to so many girls peering from behind their tea cups, praying that this impossibly shy boy would ask _her_ to dance. Maybe if Ta Min asked him, the others would find their courage.

_It's just to make sure the prince has a nice birthday,_ she told herself _. He wouldn't want his best friend to be antisocial all night._

She ignored Rina’s raised eyebrows as she made her way to him, just as she ignored Roku's widening eyes when she asked if he would like to dance.

"Oh! Uh, yes, yes of course!" he stammered. Part of her worried that he would be so nervous that he would step on her feet, but he was surprisingly nimble. Looking back, Ta Min wondered if it was some latent airbending talent, but at the time, she was just happy they were competent enough dancers to have a conversation as they moved around the courtyard. Not that she could have told you what they discussed. It all felt so ordinary, so easy, that Ta Min was quick to dismiss the entire affair. Her plan worked, and Roku danced with giggling girls for the rest of the evening.

It was only the following year, when the Fire Sages arrived just minutes into the sixteenth birthday celebrations, that Ta Min realized how disappointed she was that she wouldn't get another chance to dance with him.

"C'mon, Ta Min," Rina said, snapping her out of the memory. "It won't take us an hour by ferry to reach the Western Air Temple, and they have a bakery on the island, so it will be a perfect excuse to _accidentally_ run into Roku just like you both want. You know I'm right."

The girls locked eyes, and Ta Min held up the charade for as long as she could, but both knew how it would end.

"Someday, you're going to teach me how to argue just like you, and then you won't be able to drag me into nonsense like this ever again."

Rina’s lips curled up like they always did when she knew she'd won. "And when you two get married, I get naming rights on your first child.”

“Then I hope for that child’s sake, she’s a girl, because you are just narcissistic enough to name her after yourself.”

.

It was more like several hours to reach the right island, and the line for the bakery was incredibly long with so many Earth Kingdom peasants eating their fill thanks to the cheap prices for pies and breads set by the nuns, but Ta Min didn't mind the wait. Even though she knew Roku was somewhere on the island, the odds of running into him were still low. She didn't even know where the temple was or what his training here would entail. It was just nice to explore somewhere new with her best friend and not worry about her final examinations that were only weeks away.

“Aw man, I can’t believe they ran out of plum!”

She turned around and saw a little girl with her arms crossed. An older boy, perhaps her brother, was trying to offer her a slice of cherry pie, but she wasn’t having any of it. Ta Min looked down at her own slice of plum, which she had grabbed on a whim. She walked over and extended her plate.

“Want to trade?”

The look on the girl’s face would have been payment enough, but Ta Min enjoyed her new slice of pie too. Rina watched the whole thing with an exasperated smile.

“Leave it to you to find a way to turn our romantic voyage into a charity moment.” 

"Pie’s pie,” she shrugged. “Anyway, we need to eat quickly and start making our way back to the dock. The captain said his ferry leaves at sunset, and look how low the sun already is." 

Rina looked where she was gesturing and cocked her head. "You know, I think we might be too late for that ride home. We may just need to stay here for the night. I heard someone say that there's an inn nearby," she said, pointing in the opposite direction of the dock.

Out of the question. Her parents wouldn't find out about them leaving for the day, but an entire night? She tried to argue, but Rina was pulling on her arm, and their feet picked up speed as they made their way down the hill. They weren’t quite running, but it was a faster pace than her skirts were made for. The last thing she wanted was to tumble down this hill, surrounded by a gaggle of strangers.

“Rina, we have to slow down,” she said, pulling her arm away from her grip so she could grab her skirt. It was too easy of a maneuver. She turned back and saw that Rina had actually stopped and was looking down towards the western shore. There were a number of people down below, but there had been people everywhere on this island. Ta Min didn’t understand what could have caught Rina’s attention so dramatically.

“What are you—” she started, but then her breath caught in her throat.

It was him.

He was in the same yellow and orange as everyone around him, colors she'd never seen on him before, but _it was him_. His long black hair moved playfully with the wind, and his shoulders looked more at ease than she could have imagined.

She was so caught up in the shock of actually seeing him that it took her mind a minute to catch up to what they had stumbled upon. Roku wasn’t alone in the crowd of people, but closely surrounded by a dozen other airbending students in the same uniform. Most of them had hair as long as Roku’s, but a couple of the girls had their heads completely shaved, maybe in preparation to receive their tattoos. 

One of them called out a command, and in unison, the group held up their arms to their chests and created a stream of air in front of them. As if synchronized to some music only they could hear, they slowly moved around in a circle and extended their arms into the middle so that the individual currents became one growing tunnel which extended thirty feet into the sky. Leaves and stray twigs were pulled into the vortex, but the circle never broke. They were chanting something as they moved, but the gust was too noisy for the words to carry up the hill. She only knew the words continued because their lips never stopped.

No one else was watching. People stood in line at the bakery, others walked away with their pie in hand, and still others never strayed from the village path at all. Ta Min supposed that this was ordinary to people who lived on the island, just another group of students practicing something that had been done for thousands of years, but she had never seen anything like it. A few Air Nomads had visited the Fire Nation capital throughout her life, but they had always been alone. It had never occurred to her to imagine what a group of Airbenders could accomplish together.

And Roku fit in with them as well as if he had spent his entire life on this small island instead of their sprawling archipelago.

He was made for this.

_Roku was going to be a great avatar._

It hadn't occurred to her before, to think about what kind of legacy this boy would leave, but the moment the thought entered her mind, she knew it was the absolute truth, like she knew that her parents were Kuo and Tsubaki, and that willow bark could cure any headache, and that the next Fire Lord would be Sozin.

“We need to go,” she said.

Rina looked at her like she had suggested they join in the airbending practice.

“The entire reason we came is thirty yards away, and you want to leave?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk to him,” she said as she started walking back up the hill, “but he’s clearly busy, and I can’t interrupt his training merely to say hi. Just seeing him and seeing that he’s doing well is enough, really.”

“Well lucky for you, it looks like their lesson just ended, which makes this the perfect time for _you_ to talk to him and _me_ to find us a room at the inn for the night.”

Ta Min turned back around and saw she was right. The group had dispersed, with some girls walking towards the bakery, and others toward the edge of the cliff. A few had already jumped on their gliders and were flying down the cliff towards who knew where. Roku was kneeling down, packing up his things in his bag.

"Either you go to him right now, or I'm going to holler to him from way over here," Rina said as she nudged her side. The former was decidedly less embarrassing than the latter, so Ta Min felt her feet move even though she had no idea what she would say to him. She felt Rina’s eyes on her as she slowly made her way down the steep hill, but tried to only focus on the boy now just feet away.

“Hi Roku,” she said, and groaned internally. Her voice had never been so high pitched, but maybe he hadn’t noticed. “It’s been so long!”

Roku dropped the bag that he had been packing, and the contents immediately spilled onto the ground, scrolls and brushes and even a few moon peaches.

“Ta Min? What are you doing here?”

She knelt down beside him and grabbed a peach before it could roll away. “Oh, Rina and I needed a break from our studies, so we took a little field trip today to get some pie. We heard this abbey was the best place to get some.”

“It is really good pie,” he nodded stiffly. Closing his bag, he made his way to his feet, and Ta Min did the same. What was she supposed to do with her hands? Where was she supposed to look?

“So, have you been enjoying your time here? Rina said you just arrived last month.”

“I guess. It’s a lot of work, so I don’t really have a lot of time for fun. I’m kind of behind on my avatar training.”

_Great job, Ta Min, finding a sore spot of his without even trying._

Some of the other students had noticed them talking and slowed their own conversations to overhear theirs. Ta Min wondered what they saw. To her, this group of girls were among the most amazing benders she had ever seen. Maybe Roku had been around airbenders for so long that this new ability was normal to him, but it was still extraordinary to her.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Well that airbending exercise you were doing just now was incredible!” She smiled and tried to catch his eye, but he seemed to be looking everywhere _except_ her gaze.

“I know it looks impressive, but it’s something most airbenders can do by the time they’re thirteen,” he shrugged. “My teachers are really patient with me. Apparently most avatars could master their second element in just a couple of years, but it’s taken me twice as long.”

None of this felt right. Ta Min felt her mind whirl; maybe she had read this situation all wrong. Maybe Roku didn’t remember that one dance they’d had all those years ago, hadn’t noticed her stealing glances at him behind her books. Had this all been a gigantic waste of time?

“Avatar Roku!”

They both turned to the person calling for him. She was one of the girls whose head was shaved, and looked just a few years older than they were.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but Sister Wangchuk says you need to head back to the temple.” She looked at Ta Min for the first time, and her eyes widened. “Oh, I didn’t realize your friend was a visitor from the south.”

“Rabten, this is Ta Min,” he said, cheeks pink. Was he embarrassed of her, showing up unannounced at his next step of his Avatar journey?

“Ta Min,” she repeated, and her name sounded different that time. Like it was familiar in her mouth, even though she had never met this girl before in her life. Rabten took a step back and put her hand on her hip. “You know, there were _so many_ people at the market today.”

Roku’s eyebrows bunched together as he looked behind them. There were a good number of people, but implying that there were so many that one couldn’t find the Avatar was a stretch. Ta Min wasn’t sure how many people were normally on the island; if this was a large crowd, she wasn’t sure how the abbey could possibly support itself.

“What do you—”

“So many people,” she interrupted him, “that I just couldn’t find him, Sister. I don’t think it was something that couldn’t wait until tomorrow, isn’t that right?”

She winked and made her way down the path, interlacing her fingers with another one of the girls from the circle as she did so.

“What was that all about?” he asked, completely bewildered. His expression was so earnest that she burst out laughing and doubled over when he asked what _this_ was all about in the same tone.

“Roku, she was trying to give us some space, just like Rina did. They seem to think we might want it.”

“Do we?”

His voice was quiet, like he was trying not to hope, but failing miserably. She smiled and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

“How about you give me a tour of this place? I know you said you haven’t had much time to explore, and you can’t show me everything, but I’d love to see some of your favorites.”

For someone who claimed to have not explored much of the island, Roku was a wonderful tour guide. He took her around the local village, which didn’t take very long, and through the nearby forest, which took longer than it should have thanks to their ever slowing pace. He apologized for not being able to take her to the temple itself since it was not open to the public, but she didn’t mind in the least. The tour was just an excuse to be by Roku’s side, and Ta Min was enjoying herself more with every passing minute. As he talked, Roku seemed to relax more and more, almost as if he was able to sink into himself when he had a task and didn’t have to overthink anything. Their conversation felt almost like that night nearly six years ago when all they had to do was dance. Formal, aware that others might be watching them, but not uncomfortable.

As they made their way back into the village and toward the inn where Rina had found a room, she wondered how many other people had been on this same tour with Roku. Was she but the latest in a string of Avatar Roku admirers?

“I think you’ll really enjoy the last thing I want to show you.”

They turned the corner and were greeted, not by a sprawling meditation labyrinth or huge pen of ten ton flying creatures, but a small garden. There were half a dozen rows of herbs, and twice as many shrubs surrounding the perimeter. Cautiously, she made her way past the fence protecting it from scrounging animals.

She recognized akebia, and monkey grass, and golden-and-silver honeysuckle, but most of the plants seemed to be unlike anything that she’d ever studied back home. The closer she looked, however, the more familiar they became, and she started noticing the patterns that connected them to the commonplace plants in her notes. The shape of this one’s leaves were like the Houttuynia, and this petal moved from red to pale yellow just like Amomum, and though she didn’t dare touch it, the fuzz on the last bush in this row seemed to be a twin of udo. 

Running her hand along the side of the trough, she read the labels and committed them to memory. Her tutors weren’t dumb, but they didn’t tell her that the Air Nomads possessed such knowledge. She wanted to know it all. She wondered if that would be allowed. Realizing that it had been several minutes since she had last spoken, she turned around and saw Roku watching her with a nervous grin.

“Do you like it?”

“Like it?” she laughed. “It’s wonderful! I want to sit down with their head gardener and ask her a thousand questions! But— but how did you know I would care so much?”

He shrugged. “You always wanted to be an herbalist when we were children. I just hoped that that dream was still the same.”

“I _did_ always want to be one,” she said. “I’m studying for my final examinations now. But I didn’t realize you paid that much attention to me.”

His cheeks were pink again, but this time he was smiling, and so was Ta Min.

.

From then on, their time together was easy. Rina went back home the next day and explained the situation to Ta Min’s parents. She knew that she would be in a world of trouble when she went home, but that didn’t matter right now. Roku had somehow gotten out of his Avatar training, and they had an entire day to themselves before Rina would return the following morning to take Ta Min home.

Their conversation flowed like they had been doing this for all of the Avatar’s lifetimes. Ta Min found herself sharing parts of herself that she had always kept from others, even Rina.

Her desire to travel the world.

Her longing to protect those she loved with her knowledge of herbs and medicine.

Her fear of leaving this life without having accomplished something worthwhile.

Her desire to be seen, to be known by another.

“Does that make sense?” she asked yet again.

“It does,” he replied each time.

That night, they made their way to the roof of the inn, and just laid down on a blanket to look up at the stars. Their conversation had slowed, but Ta Min had never felt more at ease. Her head found its way to Roku’s shoulder, and her smile when he tentatively wrapped his arm around her must have looked ridiculous. She didn’t care.

“No one has ever visited me in my training,” he whispered, and it felt like a confession.

.

_“Before I go,” Rina had said, “you have to promise me that you will not leave this island without kissing Roku.”_

_“But—”_

_“No! You don’t know when the next time you will be able to see him, and you don’t want to regret this. Trust me on this. When I pick you up, nod or shake your head so I know if I need to kick your ass before we leave.”_

.

The next morning arrived too soon. Ta Min assumed that Rina would take her time in collecting her best friend, but she hustled them along because the only boat that was returning to the Fire Nation that day was leaving just a few minutes after she arrived.

“That apple nutmeg roll from the other day has my name on it. I’m going to get a piece for my breakfast, and when I come back, we have to go.”

Rina locked eyes with Ta Min, who shook her head. She rolled her eyes and yelled, “Five minutes for no regrets!” as she ran to the bakery.

Roku slid his hand into hers and she turned her head to look at him with a small smile.

“I’m glad I was able to see you again, even if it wasn’t for very long,” he said.

Oh.

She was _leaving_ him.

This wouldn't happen again for a long time, if they were lucky enough for it to happen at all.

She tried to open her mouth, but the words refused to form. It was Roku, for once, who took the initiative.

"Ta Min, I don’t want to let another four years go by without talking to you. These last few days have been incredible, and I don’t want this to stop just because I have to be away from the Fire Nation. I want to keep getting to know you, the _real_ you, not that girl I had a crush on from afar, even if we have to be apart from each other. Would it be alright if I wrote to you? I'm leaving the Western Air Temple in a couple of weeks, but when I know where my waterbending training will take place, I can send you the address. You know, in case you want to write to me too."

It was the most she had ever heard him say at once. He seemed to realize the weight of his speech at the same moment she did and rubbed his neck, trying to hang his head to hide his pink cheeks, but the extra foot he had grown since he'd been away made that impossible. Ta Min angled her head so she could look in his eyes, and was relieved when her smile brought out his.

"I would love for you to write to me," she said, "as long as you don't leave this island before you receive my first letter to you, because it will be on its way tomorrow."

Now his cheeks were fully red, but he was still smiling, and Ta Min squeezed his hand one last time before she walked to where Rina was waiting with a handful of rolls.

"Ta Min, that was—"

"Save it," she interrupted. "I know you told me I had to kiss him before we left this island, but it just didn't feel right, okay? I don't want to rush this and then regret that instead."

"What I was _going_ to say, is that I thought that was very smooth of you, insisting that you write the first letter, and I think that will do just fine."

She grabbed a roll out of Rina’s hands, and didn’t look back. She didn’t need to. She was already composing her letter in her mind, and knew that Roku was doing the same.

**Author's Note:**

> ~~Canon rare-pair squad what up~~
> 
> Title is a lyric from Darren Criss’s “Don’t You” (I’m honestly surprised it took me this long to use one of his lyrics as a fic title).
> 
> Kudos and especially comments are always appreciated, especially as I’ve hit a bit of a writer’s slump in NaNoWriMo.
> 
> Find me on tumblr at [klainelynch](https://klainelynch.tumblr.com/)


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